4 Key Takeaways for Nonprofits From Giving USA 2024

2023 brought many changes to the nonprofit sector, including valuable opportunities and new challenges. While advances in technology (especially artificial intelligence) allowed for innovation in fundraising and donor engagement, economic factors and decreased societal trust in nonprofits proved difficult to navigate for many organizations.

These trends are reflected in Giving USA 2024: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2023, published in June 2024. If you’ve read the report or seen statistics from it online, you might be wondering what to do next or how this information applies to your nonprofit. 

Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place! In this guide, we’ll look at four key areas of the 2024 Giving USA Annual Report data, discuss takeaways from each one, and outline next steps you can take. Let’s dive in!

Giving USA 2024: What the Numbers Say

1. Total giving is trending positively—but not outpacing inflation

The headline statistic from Giving USA 2024 states that “U.S. charitable giving totaled $557.16 billion in 2023.” This includes individual donations, bequests, foundation giving, and corporate giving.

In current dollars, this is the highest charitable giving total in history—a 1.9% increase over 2022. However, when adjusted for inflation, total giving decreased by 2.1%.

Despite the decline, fundraising experts are generally optimistic about the state of charitable giving in the United States. Contributions remain higher than pre-pandemic levels, and current-dollar giving is on the rise again after decreasing from 2021 to 2022. The inflation rate for 2023 was also higher than average (4.1%), while the stock market and GDP performed better than expected and consumer spending generally increased.

Takeaway: While there are reasons to be hopeful about charitable giving as a whole, every nonprofit may be affected differently by economic changes. Stay on top of trends as your nonprofit creates its budget and plans its fundraising initiatives, and be prepared to pivot if necessary.

2. Foundation and corporate giving experienced positive two-year growth

Foundation giving is a much larger share of the philanthropic pie than it used to be, having increased from 6% to 19% of charitable contributions over the past 40 years. In 2023, for the second year in a row, foundation giving crossed the $100 billion mark, and it has experienced positive growth over the past two years combined (both in current and inflation-adjusted dollars).

Corporate giving still comprises a relatively small share of total charitable contributions, only increasing from 6% to 7% over the past 40 years. However, corporate giving has also experienced positive two-year growth in both current and inflation-adjusted dollars—and it has been the fastest-growing nonprofit revenue source over the past five years. This is due to a strong economic environment for businesses and the growing variety of corporate philanthropy programs (sponsorships, matching gifts, volunteer grants, employee giving campaigns, etc.).

Takeaway:If foundation grants and corporate giving aren’t already part of your nonprofit’s funding model, consider investing in them more deeply over the next few years—it’ll likely pay off!

3. Bequests are growing in popularity

Bequests have remained fairly consistent over the past 40 years as a percentage of total charitable contributions (9-10%). Although bequest totals are volatile due to the gifts’ typically large size, they grew more than any other revenue source in 2023 in current dollars and remained fairly flat when adjusted for inflation, whereas all of the other sources experienced a noticeable decline.

Additionally, demographic and economic factors show that bequests will continue to be important for nonprofit revenue generation. Adults 60 and over are generally more likely to make planned gifts, and they comprised 23.4% of the U.S. population (more than 77 million individuals) in 2023. Plus, this demographic’s wealth has grown by 30% since 2019, setting more of them up to give high-impact donations like bequests.

Takeaway: Now is the time to put effort and resources into your nonprofit’s planned giving program! Rather than treating bequests as a nice surprise (as many organizations do), actively pursue them by conducting prospect research and engaging in strategic donor cultivation.

4. Major donors are contributing to individual giving growth

While giving levels grew unevenly across the major categories of nonprofit organizations in 2022, 2023 saw more consistent—and promising—results. In current dollars, giving to nonprofits in all nine verticals that Giving USA monitors increased. When adjusted for inflation, the only two categories that saw a year-over-year decline were Religion and International Affairs, both of which dropped by less than 2% between 2022 and 2023.

The nonprofit verticals that saw the most significant growth in individual giving include:

• Contributions to Foundations:
  • +15.4% current dollars
  • +10.8% inflation-adjusted
• Public-Society Benefit:
  • +11.6% current dollars
  • +7.2% inflation-adjusted
• Education:
  • +11.1% current dollars
  • +6.7% inflation-adjusted
• Arts, Culture, and Humanities:
  • +11.0% current dollars
  • +6.6% inflation-adjusted

In both current and inflation-adjusted dollars, giving to education and the arts reached an all-time high in 2023.

Takeaway: The main thing the giving segments that saw the most growth have in common is that they’re associated with wealthy donors. This underscores the importance of major donor fundraising in the nonprofit landscape—consider revisiting your nonprofit’s strategy to ensure you’re using the best methods and tools for identifying and cultivating high-impact donors.

Capitalize on GivingUSA 2024 Trends With DonorSearch

To level up your nonprofit’s strategy according to the above takeaways from Giving USA 2024, you need the right tools on your side. The team at DonorSearch is here to help!

DonorSearch has developed the leading prospect research database on the market, empowering your organization to identify the best potential donors for your major and planned giving programs. You’ll gain access to more than one billion data points from trusted sources, ranging from real estate records to other nonprofits’ annual reports. This information includes key indicators about prospects’ giving capacity, philanthropic tendencies, and affinity for your mission so you can fully understand their potential impact for your nonprofit.

Additionally, DonorSearch is a leader in the nonprofit AI space and offers several tools to help your organization get on board, including:

• DonorSearch Ai, the most advanced machine learning solution for the nonprofit sector that provides custom predictive modeling of prospect research data.
• Enhanced CORE, your organization’s gateway to AI fundraising that harnesses the power of DonorSearch Ai in its most essential functions.
• ProspectView Online 2, which develops AI-generated reports that summarize the most important and actionable information on each major and planned giving prospect.
• DSAi + Momentum, which helps you create tailored donor outreach materials based on DonorSearch Ai insights.

As your nonprofit works with these solutions, DonorSearch’s client support team is here to help your team make the most of their features according to your specific needs and broader sector trends.

Final Thoughts

While the Giving USA 2024 Annual Report reflects some of the challenges the nonprofit sector has been facing recently, there is also plenty to be excited about. Lean into those areas of optimism and opportunity—keep tabs on economic shifts, invest more deeply in foundation and corporate giving, and grow your major and planned giving programs (with the help of tools like DonorSearch).

For more information on the takeaways from Giving USA 2024, check out these resources:

• Nonprofit Fundraising Metrics: 30+ KPIs to Measure Success. Discover a range of metrics you can use to track your progress toward goals related to the Giving USA 2024 takeaways.
• Major Gifts: A Guide to Securing Large Donations. Dive deeper into the major gift fundraising cycle and learn how to kickstart your organization’s major giving program.
• AI Fundraising for Nonprofits: Embracing the New Frontier. Explore various ways your nonprofit can incorporate AI into its fundraising strategy to boost future success.